OFWs in HK to rally vs direct-hiring ban

By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:50:00 02/03/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Filipino workers in Hong Kong are planning to stage a rally on Sunday to oppose Manila’s continued ban on direct hiring, a group of migrant Filipinos in the former British colony said.

More than 6,000 Filipinos in Hong Kong have signed the petition calling for the lifting of the ban, which they said only benefits recruiters, Dolores Balladares, chairperson of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said Tuesday.

"Instead of answering our need for sufficient services and genuine protection, the Philippine government chose to resurrect the ban on direct hiring that forcibly feed us to unscrupulous recruiters," she said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

There are more than 100,000 overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong.

In 2007, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration issued the Guidelines on Hiring Household Service Workers, which, among other things, removed placement fees.

In reality, Balladares said, the guidelines did not reduce the OFWs’ expenses because the rules also allowed recruiters to collect "training fees."

"We said it before and we say it again: A ban on direct hiring is never for our protection as it puts us in an even more vulnerable position to get exploited and overcharged by recruiters. The government doesn't do anything to finally stamp out overcharging and
now they have the gall to throw us to the wolves," she added.

Balladares noted that the government previously tried to impose the ban in 1994 through POEA Memorandum Circular 41, which Department of Labor and Employment Order 11 scrapped in 2001, and in 2008 POEA Memorandum Circular 04, which was not implemented at all.

"Direct hiring is the way for us not to get victimized by overcharging. What is more condemnable is, like his predecessors, DoLE Secretary Marianito Roque continues to deceive us by saying that the ban is for our protection," she said, noting that recruiters charge OFWs between P20,000 to P100,000..

Balladares said the labor chief is muddling the issue by insisting that only a small number of overseas Filipinos go through the direct hiring process. She also criticized Philippine Labor Attaché in Hong Kong Romulo Salud for trying to confuse OFWs by calling direct hiring, name hiring, which is essentially the same thing.